The present inventive concepts relate to magnetic memory devices and, more particularly, to magnetic memory devices that include a magnetic tunnel junction.
As electronic devices trend toward high speed and/or low power consumption, high speed and low operating voltages are increasingly desired for semiconductor memory devices incorporated in the electronic devices. In order to meet the above requirement, magnetic memory devices have been suggested as semiconductor memory devices. Since magnetic memory devices may operate at high speed and have nonvolatile characteristics, they have attracted considerable attention as the next generation of semiconductor memory devices.
A magnetic memory device may generally include a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) pattern. A magnetic tunnel junction pattern may include two magnetic structures and an insulation layer interposed therebetween. The resistance of a magnetic tunnel junction pattern may vary depending on magnetization directions of the two magnetic structures. For example, the magnetic tunnel junction pattern may have high resistance when the magnetization directions of the two magnetic structures are anti-parallel and low resistance when the magnetization directions of the two magnetic structures are parallel. The magnetic memory device may write/read data using the resistance difference between the high and low resistances of the magnetic tunnel junction pattern.
With the remarkable advances in electronic industry, there is an increasing demand for magnetic memory devices having high integration and/or low power consumption. Accordingly, many studies have been conducted to meet these demands.